Report to Council, August 25, 2004

Mr. President, Ladies and gentlemen of the Council:

The Society encourages those entering the Presidential succession to have themes and points of focus for a year as President. This is a useful exercise because it forces one to make amorphous ideas crystalline, and to learn to express those ideas succinctly and compellingly.

Thank you all for your help in my crystallization—or perhaps self-assembly--process. I’ve spent the summer, and particularly this meeting speaking to members about how we can come together to make a difference in three agenda areas. A full white paper describing each of these topics can be found at http://www.billcarroll.org.

1) "Enterprise 2015," which I envision as a built-by-members look at the changing nature of the Chemistry Enterprise in the US--in industry, education and government, influenced by events here and around the world. Work has started on this project already, preparing a written situation analysis that will be available in advance of the spring meeting. The process output will be a final report on how we and others see the future and how members might position themselves to understand and be advantaged by the changes taking place around us.

2) Secondary Education, particularly providing a better spotlight for high school teachers at national and regional meetings. My special emphasis is on encouraging and removing barriers for those who would like to make teaching their second career and on developing information and tools that will enable members to turn interest into action.

3) Outreach, and particularly, how we can continue to make headway in the public's perception of chemists and chemistry. Among other things, I’m encouraging member groups—especially Local Sections—to consider service projects as a means of highlighting the essential nature of chemistry and using the media’s potential interest as a means of starting a conversation with the public on chemistry’s benefits.

Additionally, the ACS Scholars program and the Committee on Chemists with Disabilities celebrate significant anniversaries next year. There will be events commemorating each.

The overall theme is Opportunity. Recent years have been hard and with due respect to those hard years it’s time to refocus on how we, individually and collectively, bring value to the national and global society and economy. We have the ability to manage the future even if we cannot control all the events that impact it. 2005 will have been a success if we come to the end of the year better able to shape our futures than when we started, and if we built the tools to do so ourselves, together, as members.

On other topics, I’ll skip the travelogue this time, but I’m on track to visit 50 local sections in my term and I’m having the time of my life. This is the best job in America working with the best membership in the world, and don’t let anyone ever tell you any different.

Mr. President, that concludes my report.